


the ways i love you.

by lumiincxo



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Mentioned Jeralt Reus Eisner, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29251815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumiincxo/pseuds/lumiincxo
Summary: there are many ways to express love to a significant other.here are the ways claude von riegan and byleth show their love.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan, My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	the ways i love you.

Byleth stands before her father’s tombstone. 

She didn’t have a chance to visit since her return, and it’s almost unrecognizable now. 

The past five years have not been kind to Garreg Mach: the wear of time and ravage of the war has not spared even the resting place of the departed. The graveyard is in shambles; the ground was trampled mercilessly by bandits and people seeking shelter, and the tombstones have been left in disrepair. 

Her father’s grave is no better.  
The stone is badly chipped in many places and the inscription is fading, close to disappearing completely. 

When she visits again, will it still be there?

How much more will change after this next battle?

A heavy feeling sinks in her chest. 

She could have saved him. 

She was given celestial powers, blessed with the Sword of the Creator. And even before that she had been hailed as the Ashen Demon on the battlefield, a force of destruction. 

There is no battle that she could not win. 

Yet she couldn’t save him. Not even turning back the flow of time changed his fate. 

She wonders if death is the only legacy she will ever leave in her life. 

Can she only kill and not save? 

Edelgard and Dimitri flash in her mind. 

The heavy feeling in her chest sinks deeper. Tears well in her eyes; she blinks them away.  
This is why she avoided the graveyard. There is a box inside that she doesn’t want to open, feelings that she doesn’t want to remember. There will be time for that after the war. 

“So you’ve been here, my friend.”

Claude keeps himself at a distance, an attempt to be considerate despite his sudden intrusion. 

Byleth takes a deep breath and makes a soft noise of agreement, which he takes as an invitation to step closer. 

He is quiet and pensive while she remains silent. She doesn’t glance his way. 

Claude and Byleth stand before her father’s tombstone.

Claude wants to do something, or say something to offer her comfort and reassure her that she is not alone. 

But even someone as sagacious as he is has trouble figuring out what to do. 

He still remembers what he did around the time Jeralt was killed. 

He pestered Byleth for her father’s diary to satiate his own curiosity and while he didn’t ask for it lightly, he does wish that he did things differently. Looking back, all he did was cause her trouble; he didn’t even let her say no to lending out the diary. After it happened, he always wanted to apologize but he never did have the chance. 

The war broke out the ensuing months and then she vanished. 

For the past five years he’s carried that guilt with him and when she disappeared, it only grew worse.

Byleth has done so much for him, even during their time at the Officer’s Academy. He gave her the friendship that he so desperately longed for, and as his Teach, she helped him grow as a leader and fighter.

Claude knows that he would have never made it this far if she wasn’t in his life, and without her, he wouldn’t have the hope to see the war to its end. 

He knows that there is a new dawn ahead because she has been his guiding star. 

If there was a way for him to give back even a fraction of what she has done for him...

He steps closer to her and their shoulder’s brush lightly against one another. The sudden movement doesn’t faze her, she welcomes him into her personal space. 

Slowly, he reaches for her hand and intertwines her fingers with his own. This makes her tremble, and fills her a feeling that she’s unfamiliar with. His hand is so warm and his touch is so tender. 

He gives her hand a gentle squeeze and something inside her chest breaks. 

There are so many things Claude wants to say, but maybe for now this will be enough.

Byleth finally allows her tears to fall.

They stand together before her father’s tombstone, their hands intertwined, and their hearts connected through unspoken words.

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first time i'm posting ff in literally years i'm so nervous lol  
> it rly took claude von sexy and miss byleth to get me out of my creative slump
> 
> this is for one of the prompts for a claudeleth zine event over on twitter & i'm so happy i actually managed to write something!
> 
> please check out @claudelethzine on twitter for more claudeleth content by so many wonderful people <3


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